Refrigerator evaporator



United States Patent O REFRIGERATOR EVAPORATOR Si J. Williams, Jr., Evansville, Ind., assignor to International Harvester Company, a corporation of New Jersey Application December 29, 1952, Serial No. 328,450

2 Claims. (Cl. 62-99) This invention relates generally to refrigerator evaporators and more specifically to an improved refrigerator evaporator which will effectively and efliciently operate during the refrigeration cycle and the defrost cycle of a refrigerator.

It is an object of this invention to provide a refrigerator evaporator which will effectively and efficiently cool any food placed within the connes of the evaporator during the refrigeration cycle, and which may be efficiently and rapidly defrosted.

It is a feature of this invention that a tray is provided within a refrigerator cabinet which serves to divide the refrigerator cabinet into two compartments, and which also serves as a base upon which food is placed within the upper or freezer compartment.

Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent upon a perusal of the following specification and drawing of which,

Fig. l is a partial front plan view of a refrigerator cabinet;

Fig. 2 is a top cross-sectional view of the refrigerator cabinet shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side plan view of a portion of the evaporator shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and

Fig. 4 is a side plan view of another portion of the evaporator shown in Figs. l and 2.

The present embodiment is the preferred embodiment but it is to be understood that changes can be made in the present embodiment by one skilled in the art Without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention.

For a detailed description of the invention reference is made to Figs. l through 4. A refrigerator cabinet 2 is shown with a refrigerator door 4 pivotally mounted thereto. An inner liner 30 is positioned within the refrigerator cabinet 2 to form a food storage compartment. A tray 3 is mounted within the food storage compartment in a horizontal plane as can easily be seen in Fig. l. The tray 3 divides the food storage compartment into two compartments, and one of these compartments, the upper compartment, is a freezer compartment 6. The tray 3 can be formed of wire in the shape of an open rack. The tray 3 can also be formed of a plastic or similar material in the shape of a sheet, and may be insulated.

Within the freezer compartment 6, an evaporator is mounted. The evaporator comprises three vertical members or walls 7, 23 and 24. Each of the walls 7, 23 and 24 is formed to lie substantially within a vertical plane, and these walls are spaced some distance from one another and maintained in that spaced relation by a pair of braces 20. 'I'he braces 20 are horizontally disposed and are mounted to the rear portion of each of the walls 7, 23 and 24. The braces 20 are, in turn, mounted to the back portion of the inner liner 30 by means of mounting means 21.

The wall 7 comprises an upper header 8 and a lower header 9. These headers are interconnected by means of ICC a plurality of parallel tubes 10, as can easily be seen in Figure 3.

The walls 23 and 24 are similar, differing in the positions of their inlet connections. Each of the walls 23 and 24 comprises a length of serpentine tubing 13 and 18. The serpentine tubings 13 and 18 are formed to have a number of horizontally disposed straight sections interconnected by curved sections as can easily be seen in Fig. 4. The straight sections are parallelly disposed to one another. Each length of serpentine tubing 13 and 18 is maintained in the aforesaid positions by a number of braces 14 and 17 respectively.

The upper end of the serpentine tubing 18 of the wall 24 is connected to an inlet tube 15. The inlet tube 15 is of a diameter substantially smaller than the diameter of the serpentine tubing 18, and serves as a metering device or capillary tube for liquid refrigerant. The lower end of the serpentine tubing 18 of the wall 24 is connected at the junction 16 to a length of tubing 19. The other end of the tube 19 is connected to the upper end of the serpentine tubing 13 of the wall 23 at junction 17. The lower end of the serpentine tubing 13 of the wall 23 is connected to a length of tubing 12 at the junction 22. The other end of the tube 12 is connected to the lower header 9 of the wall 7. To the upper surface of the upper header 8 of the wall 7, an outlet tube 11 is connected. As can easily be seen in Figs. 1 and 2, the tube 12 is positioned in a horizontal direction at the rear portion of the walls 7 and 23, and the tube 19 is positioned along a diagonal between the top of the wall 23 and the bottom of wall 24 at the rear portion of these Walls.

It is intended that the inlet tube 15 be connected to the outlet side of a conventional refrigerator condenser (not shown). It is further intended that the outlet tube 11 be connected to the inlet side of a conventional refrigerator compressor (not shown). Thus it may be seen that liquid refrigerant will flow from the inlet tube 15 through the serpentine tubing 18, upwardly through the tube 19, through the serpentine tubing 13, through the tube 12, through the lower header 9, and through the tubes 10 to the upper header 8. AS the liquid refrigerant absorbs heat it will assume a gaseous state, and these gases will be withdrawn from the evaporator through the outlet 11. As can be seen in Fig. l, in comparison to the volume of the freezer compartment, substantial quantities of food may be placed upon the upper surface of the tray 3 adjacent to the various walls 7, 23 and 24 for effective and efficient cooling thereof. As any food disposed upon the tray 3 adjacent to the wall 24 heats the wall 24 to cause the refrigerant in that wall to assume a gaseous state, the gases produced thereby will proceed through the tube 19, the serpentine tubing 13, the tube 12 into the wall 7. As any food placed upon the upper surface of the tray 3 adjacent to the wall 23 heats the Wall 23 to cause the liquid refrigerant disposed therein to assume a gaseous state, the gases produced thereby will proceed through the tube 12 to the wall 7. Any food placed upon the upper surface of the tray 3 adjacent to the wall 7 will heat the wall 7 to cause the liquid refrigerant disposed therein to assume a gaseous state. Due to the larger vol-` ume of the parallel tubings and headers inthe wall 7 than` the serpentine tubings in the walls 23 and 24, the evapo. rator is maintained flooded with liquid refrigerant, and the gases produced in the various portions of the evaporator,

as described above, may easily pass through the wall 7 to.

the outlet 11.

When the evaporator is defrosted by any conventional will 4liow downward along 'the surfaces of the walls 7, 23 and 24 into the tray 3. The defrost Water dripping into the tray 3 can be removed therefrom by any method wellknown in the art. It can yth'en be seen that none of the defrost Water produced will drip -onto I'any food disposed within the contines of the evaporator.

Having described'the' invention, what'is considered new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is:

l. In a refrigerator, an inner liner disposed within said refrigerator, A'a horizontally 'disposed tray mounted in cooperation wit-h said inner liner to thereby form a freezer compartment positioned'withinsaid inner liner above said tray, evaporator means disposed within said compartment for refrigeration of said compartment lcomprising three vertically disposed walls, each of said walls formed entirely in a verticalv plane, mounting means for mounting said rWalls in :appar'allel spaced-apart relation, the first of said walls comprising an upper and a lower header and a plurality of parallel 'tubes `interconnecting said upper and lower headers, the second and third of said walls each comprising a length of serpentine tubing having horizontally vdisposed straight sections interconnected by curved sections, said straight sections disposed in a parallel spaced-apart relation, -an inlet tube connected to the upper end of said third Wall, a connecting tube connected to the lower end of said third wall and the upper end of said second wall, a second length of connecting tubing connected to the lower end of said second wall and to said lower header and an outlet tube connected to the upper surface of said upper header.

2. In a refrigerator vas claimed in claim l, said mounting means comprising a pair of braces mounted to one end of each of -said walls, said braces horizontally disposed in a spaced-apart relation, and said inlet tube being formed to have a diameter substantially less than the diameter of said outlet tube.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,065,538 Reeves Dec. 29, 41936 v2,156,544 RaSkll May 2, I1939 2,166,161 'Kleist .Tilly l 18, 1939 2,312,861 AChSOIl Mar. 2, 1943 

